Firefighter needing help.

A

Armydog

0
Hi Everyone. I need to lose weight and I'm having a hard time with how to do it.

I work 24 hours every other day, and when I get home, my wife needs help with the kids, and it feels like I don't have time to do any weight loss stuff.

My meals I know are unhealthy and I would like to switch it up a bit, but my wife is very picky and it's hard to stay away from the food that everyone cooks at the Fire Station.

Can someone give me some ideas on what to do as far as balancing out things?

I weight 250 now, and I would like to get down to 190.

Thanks in advance.
 
To be blunt, you either make changes to your diet or you don't. It's that simple. A choice always exists. For instance, at the firehouse you can eat the crap everyone else is eating or you can man up and pack your meals, which you prepare in advance.

I work two jobs, have a wife and first child on the way, lots of bills, active social life, etc., etc and I still make damn sure that more often than not, the foods I'm putting into my body are controlled.

I'll precook meats twice per week and bag them into serving sizes so it's simply a matter of grabbing and going from the fridge.

I'll prepackage things like nuts, cold veggies, fruits, cooked pasta, etc.

Essentially I do everything in my power to make packing my meals throughout the week as simple as possible.

Does it take some effort? Sure. Do I always feel like preparing most of my meals in advance? Hell no. Once I'm done, does it make staying on track and making the right decisions easy? Hell yes.
 
I'll echo what Steve said. I work a full time job (40+ hours a week) plus own my own business as a photographer. I spent weekends at weddings where there's rich catered food and often no opportunity for me to leave to get a healthy meal or take a full dinner or lunch break.

I also have a full social life - which involves going out for drinks, meals, etc., with friends or dates.

I could use all of that as an excuse, but I won't. If I did, I'd go back to weighing 250 lbs. Instead I MAKE time to eat right, MAKE the right choices when I eat out, MAKE myself stop at one drink when I go out with friends, etc.

A friend of mine once told me that when something is important to you, you don't "find" time to do it, you MAKE time. He's right. Either you choose to do something or you don't ... but until you're ready to stop making excuses it won't happen.
 
Ditto what Steve and Kara said. Good advice. I take my food on the road whenever I am uncertain that I will be able to eat to meet my goals. I just ate 105 calories of carrots and 200 calories of oranges for lunch. If I relied on local food, I would have eaten a Chicago style hot dog and fries (which I love) but that is not going to do it.

When you have "people" in your life, it is easy to under-optimize your health because of what they do. Don't pay the price for their lifestyle choices. Keep your own.
 
You can do it! Changing your eating habits is very important, but little by little is really best. If you cut everything out at once, it will make it so much harder to adjust, but you can do it. If you truly put your mind to it, you will achieve your weight loss goal!
 
The main reason as to why diets don’t work is because, in order to achieve permanent weight loss you have to make permanent changes to your eating and exercise habits; If not, you will find yourself reverting to your old eating habits and no matter how much weight you managed to lose, it will come back and you will find yourself back to square one, so to achieve long term women weight loss, you need to make some long term lifestyle changes.
 
It seems everybody is coming down hard on you. I know where you're coming from as I used to be a firefighter sometimes doing double duty as paramedic. Used to work the same hours with 72 hour shifts every second weekend.

I smuggled in an exercise bike and did High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) 6 days a week and yes I did pack healthy meals but every Sunday I indulged in the foods I liked, even some pizza.

When I started this I lost 18 pounds in 14 days. I'm now 58 years old and I'm still doing it. I just added some extra training now.
By the way, there are many ways you can do HIIT such as jogging, walking, swimming etc...
Following is a post I did on my blog. This is to give you an indication of how easy it is.

If you have access to a road bike, stationary bike, a treadmill, an open road to go jogging/walking or you love swimming, you have what you need. The most basic program is as follows:

1. 3 to 5 Minutes low intensity warm-up (jogging, cycling, power walking or whatever your choice of cardiovascular exercise).
2. 1 Minute of moderate to high intensity exercise depending on your level of fitness (higher is more effective).
3. 1 Minute low intensity recovery and I mean slowing down to a crawl. It is very important to your success to recover in that period.
4. Repeat the above 6 to 8 times.
5. 3 to 5 minutes low intensity cool down and that is it.

Try and do this for 20 to 30 minutes a day, six days a week combined with a healthy eating plan.

All the best.
 
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